Narrativism in GURPS

[LemmingLord]

Originally Posted by whswhs

If they only get to be surprised when they've asked to be surprised, I think that might lessen the impact.

Basically, I have no problem with turning over a share of the setting to the players; one of my best campaigns worked like that, with each player creating an entire household of noble aristocratic mages. But I feel that control of sequence, timing, and suspense is my job as GM. And having some control of content, and some power to hide content from the players, is a tool for achieving that control.

That sounds pretty cool.

On the other hand, besides what the players say they want, everything else is still up to the gamemaster...

[Gizensha]

Originally Posted by Crakkerjakk

Yes, but explicitly NOT using CP. Because, as I mentioned, I don't want to provide a resource that can be used for anything BUT narrative control, as this provides an incentive not to exercise narrative control in order to save said resources for other uses.

So, instead of giving 2-3 CP per session (Assuming you want to keep the numbers about the same) give 1-2 CP and 0-1NP (or 0-1CP and 1-2NP) - Where NP can only be spent as per the Player Guidance optional rule (weather or not ordinary CP can be spent on it) or for uses of a serendipity as per Supers' costs CP options.

[nanoboy]

As an update to my trying the Fate system (and its narrative rules framework) through Spirit of the Century, I wanted to mention how the game went: very, very well. They made their characters, and I ran them through a pretty simple pulp adventure. The players, despite being generally old-school role-players, had a blast.

The most fun unique part of the experience was during character creation. For those who don't know, in Spirit of the Century, characters have ten "Aspects," phrases or words that describe some part of their character. During the game, these can be compelled by a GM (similar to failing a control roll in GURPS), and the player can opt to do something disadvantageous and receive a Fate point or opt to resist it and give up a Fate point. The Aspects can also be used by the player to give a bonus to a situation in which it is relevant by spending a Fate point. For example, a character who is "Quick to Anger" may be compelled to have a fit at an inopportune time or invoke the Aspect for a bonus when being angry could help. Anyway, when making a character, the players choose the first six Aspects and then (to the great surprise of my players) they pass their characters around to two other players who each the character two Aspects. That turned out to be very, very fun.

In Spirit of the Century, these aspects are added in five steps. First, what the character did during their childhood; second, what the character did during the Great War; third, what the character did in the first pulp novel about them; fourth, what they did guest-starring in another character's novel; and fifth, what they did in yet another character's novel. Granted, some of this is setting specific (1920s pulp goodness), but it can be adjusted to other settings, and I was wondering what people thought could be done in GURPS to have a similar effect. Could players pick up to, say, -15 points in disadvantages for another player's character? A couple of quirks? Some advantages? How would you make rules for it in a GURPS game?

As I mentioned in the original post, my wife was pregnant. Well, I ran that game during the day on Saturday, and that evening, my wife went into labor. On Sunday, our daughter Eleanor entered the world. It's relatively unimportant right now, but I am glad that I had a great game that day, since it will likely be a few months before I get a chance to role-play again.

[Brandy]

I'm a little late in coming to the thread, but here's what I do (I've posted this before; apologies for the re-post):

Originally Posted by Bookman

At the beginning of the session, I award 4 points (I give out little glass beads that serve as physical tokens for these points). These points may be used as:

1) A single instance of Luck, usually to re-roll a failed roll or to erase an enemy's critical success.
2) An addition or clarification to the current scene. For example, the players may use a point to dictate some aspect of the setting ("There is a window directly behind me, and I'm jumping through it."), cause an NPC to arrive on the scene ("Now would be a good time for a servant to come down the hall and see that I'm being attacked!"), or to place their character in the scene if they weren't already in it ("I knock on the door and say 'Charlie, are you in there?"). The only real rule is no ret-conning. If I've established a parameter of the scene, it can not be changed.
3) Used as CP to improve the character, either before or after the session.

No more than 2 points can be used in a single 'scene'.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by nanoboy

What I am thinking is that the U in GURPS could be made more accurate, if there was a way to put in some narrative components.

See the box on Basic 347.

EDIT: Looks like someone already mentioned this.

As others have said there's no reason that you can't create a kind of reward that replaces CPs for these rules. In fact you might want to give that point a CP cost, so that they can convert CPs into "plot points" (heh) or whatever but not vice versa.